School acting on shooting message
Police will patrol Lakeland High School in Rathdrum, and access to the school will be restricted today after someone wrote on a bathroom wall that a student would be shot about 1:15 p.m., a district official said.
Classes will meet as scheduled. School employees met Wednesday to review emergency procedures, said Tom Taggart, business manager for the Lakeland School District.
A student found the note on a stall wall in a girls’ bathroom about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday and told the principal, Taggart said.
“Based on the input from police and the nature of the threat and where it was and how it was presented, we don’t feel it warranted closing the school,” he said.
But absences will be excused for students whose parents choose to keep them home, he said.
West plains
Police say meth user fired shots
A West Plains man high on methamphetamine was in jail Wednesday after firing a shotgun through a door at what he thought were two gun-touting intruders but turned out to be his neighbor’s home, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Frank B. Atchison, 44, told Deputy Philip Pfeifer he could still hear the intruders when Pfeifer responded this week to 11208 W. Electric Ave., where Atchison lives in a loft in his mother’s barn, according to a news release.
Atchison said he thought an intruder shot at him twice from the bottom of the loft’s stairs and retreated before Atchison shot through the door at a second intruder, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
But Pfeifer searched the barn and saw no evidence of shots fired, the news release said, other than Atchison’s blast through the door and five pellet holes in the side of a neighbor’s home.
No one was injured. Pfeifer found a syringe at the scene loaded with what Atchison said was methamphetamine, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Atchison was booked into the Spokane County Jail on one charge of felony possession of methamphetamine. A reckless endangerment charge is pending.
Spokane
Standoff closes N. Atlantic Street
A four-hour standoff shut down part of a Spokane street Wednesday as officers negotiated with a man accused of domestic violence and unlawful imprisonment.
When officers contacted Nathan Meyers, 30, about 4 p.m. he hid in his apartment in the 6700 block of North Atlantic Street and threatened police, said Officer Matt Rose.
A SWAT team used tear gas to force him out of the home about 8:15 p.m. He was arrested on outstanding warrants for two counts of second-degree assault and one count of unlawful imprisonment.
The standoff blocked Atlantic Street between Lyons and Wedgewood avenues.
Avista crews replace gas lines
Avista utility crews spent most of the day replacing underground gas lines around a couple of houses after two fires Wednesday morning in the 4600 block of North Hartley Street in Spokane.
Spokane Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said it started about 8:15 a.m. when a high-voltage power pole toppled, igniting a fire that caused extensive damage to a vehicle parked in front of 4621 N. Hartley St.
At the same time, electricity from the downed lines was conducted underground. That caused leaks in buried gas lines and flames two to three feet high between two houses.
Firefighters and Avista utility crews extinguished the fires, secured the downed electrical lines and capped the gas lines.
According to an Avista news release, its investigation found that a squirrel came in contact with a transformer, killing the animal, burning through the power line and causing the line to fall – and setting in motion the chain of events.
No injuries were reported and neither house was damaged, Schaeffer said.
Free class covers Indian parenting
The American Indian Community Center is offering a free eight-week course on positive Indian parenting starting Oct. 13.
Sessions will cover traditional parenting, lessons of the storyteller, lessons of the cradleboard, harmony in child rearing, traditional behavior in management, lessons of Mother Nature, praise in traditional parenting and choices of parenting.
For more information, contact Matilda Sampson at the center by phone at (509) 535-0886 or in person at 801 E. Second Ave., Suite 10, in Spokane.
Deputies’ raid nets meth, arrest
A Spokane man was in jail Wednesday after sheriff’s deputies raided his home and said they found 6 ounces of methamphetamine.
Ronald F. Hipkiss, 47, faces a charge of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Hipkiss’ arrest Wednesday came one day after Spokane County sheriff’s detectives seized a Nissan Altima and $61,000 from two men who left his home en route to the Tri-Cities, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Detectives believe the money was linked to a drug operation, and charges against the car’s occupants are expected, said Sgt. Dave Reagan, Sheriff’s Office spokesman.
Investigators executed a search warrant about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at Hipkiss’ residence at 2803 E. Fourth Ave., where he lives with two children, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Hipkiss faces additional drug delivery charges based on alleged undercover purchases made at the home, authorities said.